CPOY

CPOY 72 International Picture Story Gold: In Her Footsteps

For 2000 years, Kazakh men have been hunting with golden eagles. Since the past centuries, most of them live in the Altai mountains of western Mongolia, where the traditions and knowledge have been passed on through the generations, always from father to son.

But recently, fifteen year old girl Aisholpan Nurgaiv changed the circumstances and shocked the eagle hunting society by being first female to enter and win the world's biggest eagle hunting competition.

This project follows the life of thirteen year old Bor Dameli Shokan, one out of very few young girls that are following in Aisholpans footsteps and started hunting. Right now Bor is training her own eagle to reach her dreams, hoping that one day she will become famous and accepted as a true eagle hunter.

Caption
Slide 3 of 8
March 22, 2017
Winter is the hunting season, when pray can be tracked easily in the fresh snow. Hunting with eagles have never been about hunting for food for the Kazakhs, but to get furs and make warm clothing of. Now though, it's mainly the strong and proud tradition that keep the Kazakhs hunting. It's common to hunt in groups, where one person ride along the bottom of a mountain making noises to scare the pray. When the pray run out of their hide, hunters higher up the mountain let their eagle attack from above.
Erik Nylander / Mid Sweden University
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